“He is vital to us and has been an extremely good captain,” Hill-Wood told the Sunday Mirror.

“But if somebody comes along and offers Robin £250,000 a week then I am afraid we cannot compete with that.

“With players, you never know what they are going to do. Some players say they want silverware but when they have the chance to earn extraordinary money that has been pumped into the game, then you just have to hope they will stay because they are happy and loyal where they are.

“There are players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes at Manchester United who have been loyal to one club but players like that are few and far between.

“Hopefully we can reach agreement with Robin and ideally he will extend his contract. I just hope that Robin will be with us next season because I genuinely feel we can make a real challenge for the Premier League title.”